NAME

RT::Extension::RepeatTicket - Repeat tickets based on schedule

DESCRIPTION

The RepeatTicket extension allows you to set up recurring tickets so new tickets are automatically created based on a schedule. The new tickets are populated with the subject and initial content of the original ticket in the recurrence.

After you activate the plugin by adding it to your RT_SiteConfig.pm file, all tickets will have a Recurrence tab on the create and edit pages. To set up a repeating ticket, click the checkbox to "Enable Recurrence" and fill out the schedule for the new tickets.

New tickets are created when you initially save the recurrence, if new tickets are needed, and when your daily cron job runs the rt-repeat-ticket script.

RT VERSION

Works with RT 5.0. Check out 1.* versions if you are still using RT 4.

INSTALLATION

perl Makefile.PL

make

make install

May need root permissions

make initdb

Only run this the first time you install this module.

If you run this twice, you may end up with duplicate data in your database.

If you are upgrading this module, check for upgrading instructions in case changes need to be made to your database.

patch RT

Apply for 5.0.0:

patch -p1 -d /opt/rt5 < patches/0001-Fix-radio-checkbox-inputs-for-click-panel-behavior-o.patch

Edit your /opt/rt5/etc/RT_SiteConfig.pm

Add this line:

Plugin('RT::Extension::RepeatTicket');

Clear your mason cache

rm -rf /opt/rt5/var/mason_data/obj

Add bin/rt-repeat-ticket to the daily cron job.

Restart your webserver

MODES

Simple Mode VS Concurrent Tickets Mode

This extension supports two different modes for the repeat ticket configurations. The extension originally only supported Concurrent Tickets Mode but many users found the logic counter intuitive.

Any existing repeat ticket configurations from previous versions will be in Concurrent Tickets Mode unless the definition is changed.

The default for new repeat ticket configurations is Simple Mode.

Simple Mode

In this mode tickets are created and start on the recurring date. If the lead time field is filled out the ticket will be due that many days after the recurring date. There is no check for existing active tickets and if the rt-repeat-ticket script is run multiple times for the same day it will create a new ticket for each run.

Concurrent Tickets Mode

In this mode the tickets are created with the due date as the recurring date. The tickets start on the due date minus the lead time. You can specify the max number of concurrent active tickets. If the rt-repeat-ticket script is run multiple times for the same day it will only create new tickets if there are fewer active tickets than the max number of concurrent active tickets.

CONFIGURATION

`$RepeatTicketCoexistentNumber`

Only used in Concurrent Tickets Mode.

The $RepeatTicketCoexistentNumber determines how many tickets can be in an active status for a recurrence at any time. A value of 1 means one ticket at a time can be active. New tickets will not be created until the current active ticket is resolved or set to some other inactive status. You can also set this value per recurrence, overriding this config value. The extension default is 1 ticket.

`$RepeatTicketLeadTime`

When in Simple Mode the $RepeatTicketLeadTime is the number of days to add to the recurring date for the Due date of the ticket.

When in Concurrent Tickets Mode the $RepeatTicketLeadTime becomes the ticket Starts value and sets how far in advance of a ticket's Due date you want the ticket to be created. This essentially is how long you want to give people to work on the ticket.

For example, if you create a weekly recurrence scheduled on Mondays and set the lead time to 7 days, each Monday a ticket will be created with the Starts date set to that Monday and a Due date of the following Monday.

When in Concurrent Tickets Mode, with a number of concurrent active tickets greater than 1, if you set the lead time to be larger than the interval between recurring tickets it can result in strange behavior. It is recommended that the ticket lead time be smaller or equal to the interval between tickets.

The value you set in RT_SiteConfig.pm becomes the system default, but you can set this value on each ticket as well. The extension default is 14 days.

`$RepeatTicketSubjectFormat`

By default, repeated tickets will have the same subject as the original ticket. You can modify this subject by setting a format with the $RepeatTicketSubjectFormat option. This option accepts formats in the same form as formats for RT searches. The placeholders take values from the repeated ticket, not the original ticket, so you can use the format to help differentiate the subjects in repeated tickets.

For example, if you wanted to put the due date in the subject, you could set the format to:

Set($RepeatTicketSubjectFormat, '__Due__ __Subject__');

You'll want to use values that you don't expect to change since the subject won't change if the ticket value (e.g., Due) is changed.

Since this uses RT formats, you can create a custom format by creating a new RT ColumnMap. You can see the available formats by looking at the columns available in the Display Columns portlet on the RT ticket search page.

`$RepeatTicketPreviewNumber`

By default, the Recurrence Preview will show the next 5 tickets that will be created. You can modify the number of tickets to show by setting the $RepeatTicketPreviewNumber option:

Set($RepeatTicketPreviewNumber, 10);

Set the $RepeatTicketPreviewNumber option to 0 to hide the Recurrence Preview.

rt-repeat-ticket

The rt-repeat-ticket utility evaluates all of your repeating tickets and creates any new tickets that are needed. With no parameters, it runs for "today" each day. You can also pass a --date value in the form YYYY-MM-DD to run the script for a specific day.

bin/rt-repeat-ticket --date 2012-07-25

This can be handy if your cron job doesn't run for some reason and you want to make sure no repeating tickets have been missed. Just go back and run the script for the days you missed. You can also pass dates in the future which might be handy if you want to experiment with recurrences in a test environment.

WARNING

If you run the script multiple times for the same day then it is possible multiple tickets will be created for the same repeat ticket configuration.

USAGE

Initial Tickets

The initial ticket you create for a recurrence stores the schedule and other details for the recurrence. If you need to change the recurrence in the future, to make it more frequent or less frequent or anything else, make the changes on the original ticket. To help you find this initial ticket, which may have been resolved long ago, a custom field is created on each ticket in the recurrence with link called "Original Ticket."

When setting up the recurrence, you can use the original ticket as an actual work ticket. When doing this, you'll need to set the Starts and Due dates when you create the ticket. Scheduled tickets created subsequently will set these values based on the recurrence. Resolving the original ticket does not cancel the recurrence.

Start Value

You can set a Start date for a new recurrence. If you don't, it defaults to the day you create the recurrence.

Cancelling Recurrences

You can cancel or end a recurrence in two ways:

Go to the original ticket in the recurrence and uncheck the Enable Recurrence checkbox.
Set ending conditions on the recurrence with either a set number of recurrences or an end date.

Recursive Recurrences

Creating recurrences on recurrences isn't supported and may do strange things.

FAQ

I'm not seeing new recurrences. Why not?

A few things to check:

Do you have rt-repeat-tickets scheduled in cron? Is it running?
If the repeat configuration is in Concurrent Tickets Mode do you have previous tickets still in an active state? Resolve those tickets or increase the concurrent active tickets value.
Is it the right day? If the repeat configuration is in Concurrent Tickets Mode remember to subtract the lead time value to determine the day new tickets should be created.
If you set a start date and another criteria like day of the week, the new ticket will be created on the first time that day of the week occurs after the start date you set (if the start date isn't on that day of the week).

I want to enable the repeat function only on some queues

To do this, insetad of applying the "Original Ticket" custom field globally, you can apply it to the chosen queues and that's it.

some users can't see or use this feature successfully.

Make sure those users have "SeeCustomField" and "ModifyCusotmField" rights granted for "Original Ticket" custom field.

SEARCHING

To search for tickets that have recurrence enabled use the following in a Ticket Search:

HasAttribute = 'RepeatTicketSettings'

This will need to be added on the Advanced tab so build the rest of your search as desired and then add the clause on the Advanced tab.

METHODS

Run( RT::Attribute $attr, DateTime $checkday )

Repeat the ticket if $checkday meets the repeat settings. It also tries to repeat more to meet config RepeatTicketCoexistentNumber.

Return ids of new created tickets.

Repeat ( RT::Attribute $attr, DateTime $checkday_1, DateTime $checkday_2, ... )

Repeat the ticket for the check days that meet repeat settings.

Return ids of new created tickets.

MaybeRepeatMore ( RT::Attribute $attr )

Try to repeat more tickets to meet the coexistent ticket number.

Return ids of new created tickets.

SetRepeatAttribute ( RT::Ticket $ticket, %args )

Save %args to the ticket's "RepeatTicketSettings" attribute.

Return ( RT::Attribute, UPDATE MESSAGE )

AUTHOR

Best Practical Solutions, LLC <modules@bestpractical.com>

BUGS

All bugs should be reported via email to

L<bug-RT-Extension-RepeatTicket@rt.cpan.org|mailto:bug-RT-Extension-RepeatTicket@rt.cpan.org>

or via the web at

L<rt.cpan.org|http://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=RT-Extension-RepeatTicket>.

LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT

This is free software, licensed under:

The GNU General Public License, Version 2, June 1991

To install RT::Extension::RepeatTicket, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.

cpanm

cpanm RT::Extension::RepeatTicket

CPAN shell

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install RT::Extension::RepeatTicket

For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.

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NAME

DESCRIPTION

RT VERSION

INSTALLATION

MODES

Simple Mode VS Concurrent Tickets Mode

Simple Mode

Concurrent Tickets Mode

CONFIGURATION

$RepeatTicketCoexistentNumber

$RepeatTicketLeadTime

$RepeatTicketSubjectFormat

$RepeatTicketPreviewNumber

rt-repeat-ticket

WARNING

USAGE

Initial Tickets

Start Value

Cancelling Recurrences

Recursive Recurrences

FAQ

SEARCHING

METHODS

Run( RT::Attribute $attr, DateTime $checkday )

Repeat ( RT::Attribute $attr, DateTime $checkday_1, DateTime $checkday_2, ... )

MaybeRepeatMore ( RT::Attribute $attr )

SetRepeatAttribute ( RT::Ticket $ticket, %args )

AUTHOR

BUGS

LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT

Module Install Instructions

`$RepeatTicketCoexistentNumber`

`$RepeatTicketLeadTime`

`$RepeatTicketSubjectFormat`

`$RepeatTicketPreviewNumber`